09/28/14
Detroit is ready to "Lean Forward." The first phase of Mayor Mike Duggan's plan to teach and apply lean-management principles to city agencies is complete, and the teams are looking at recommendations for how to improve 18 city services.

09/14/14
How much money can a regional Great Lakes Water Authority raise to finance water and sewer systems improvements in metro Detroit, considering it will be saddled with billions of legacy bond debt and must immediately borrow about $300 million more?

09/14/14
Regional leaders have a lot to say about how much a regional authority must pay Detroit to manage its water and sewer assets for 40 years. But it remains to be seen how much Detroit will pay into the authority in return.

09/11/14
The storm that swept through Southeast Michigan on Wednesday knocked out power for about 38,000 DTE Energy Co. customers, a spokesman said. Some 1,500 DTE customers were still out of power from last Friday's storm that recorded wind gusts of 75 mph.

09/11/14
Over the last decade, numerous commentators have discussed the slow decay of our infrastructure (which includes roads, airports, power grid, water and sewer, among other items), which was never intended to operate as long as it has. The task ahead seems daunting, if not prohibitively expensive. The political will to invest what is necessary also seems lacking.

09/09/14
The first grants from the $4.5 million Detroit Head Start Early Childhood Innovation Fund will support the launch of a common data collection effort to identify best practices among five local agencies, while expanding and bolstering the services they provide.

08/31/14
In response to the Aug. 25 article "Oakland official: Drain worked, but system was deluged": All is not as it appears concerning the operation of the underground Kuhn Retention Treatment Basin.

08/26/14
Detroit resumed shutting off water to people who have not paid bills after a monthlong suspension that followed international and local criticism that the practice was unduly harsh to residents of one of the nation's poorest cities.

08/24/14
People are lined up down the road to drop their washers, dryers, cars and electronics at GLE Scrap Metal in Warren, Pontiac and Melvindale. "We're getting flooded by flood victims," founder Nathan Zack said. Here's how the business is handling the 1.6 million pounds of post-flood trash.

08/10/14
Water isn't free, but Detroiters behind on their bills can have more time — and more assistance — to ensure the taps are flowing again. That's the gist of the plan announced by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan last week to turn the water back on for low-income Detroiters delinquent on their bills.

07/13/14
Paul Potter, a Vietnam vet and former Detroit-area executive with a real estate subsidiary of DTE Energy Co., helped to overhaul veterans services in Kent County in 2009 as a volunteer serving on the county's veterans affairs committee, appointed by the county administrator. Now, he's part of the campaign to persuade voters to approve a half-mill property tax in November to expand outreach staff in the county's veterans office.